Roger Terry Barr, painter, sculptor, collage artist, and teacher, was born on 17 September 1921 to Clinton and Inez Barr in Whitefish Bay, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He studied at the University of Wisconsin, Madison; the National University of Mexico; Pomona College in Claremont, California earning his B.A.; Claremont College earning his M.F.A.; Jepson Art Institute in Los Angeles; and Atelier 17 in Paris.

Barr enlisted in the US Navy during WWII and served as a pilot and as the flight deck officer of the USS Fanshaw. After returning from the war, Barr taught at the University of California, Los Angeles between 1950 and 1952 and the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco between 1954 and 1956. He was awarded the Catherwood Foundation Fellowship in 1956 and later received the Djerassi Foundation fellowship in Woodside, California.

He moved to Paris, France in 1959 where he opened his studio and school in the same building as the now famous Atelier 17. While in Paris, he taught at the American College in Paris during the early 1960s and was the founding director of the American Art Study Abroad between 1958 and 1971. He participated in the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles in 1959 and was included in the international sculpture exhibition at the Musée Rodin in 1969.

Barr returned to the United States in 1969, moving to Santa Rosa, California where he met and married British-born printmaker Elizabeth Quandt in 1971. During his time in California he worked mostly in monumental stainless steel sculpture and he completed many commissions.

Barr's monumental sculpture "Skygate" of 1985 was the first public art work placed at the Embarcadero in San Francisco. It was a twenty-six-foot high stainless steel arched sculpture situated near Pier 35 that was dedicated to longshoreman-philosopher Eric Hofer whose friend, journalist Eric Sevareid, called it "a shining link between sea and sky."

Solo exhibitions of Barr’s work were featured at the de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco; Galerie Philadelphie, Paris; Esther Robles Gallery, Los Angeles; and the Feingarten Gallery, New York. Barr’s work is represented in the Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, California; the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond; the City of Salem, Oregon; and the City of Santa Rosa, California.

In 1994, Roger T. Barr moved to Southern California to Joshua Tree where he continued to work until his death on 7 January 2000 due to complications of a life-long battle with diabetes.